Lesson # 1
Requirement for a C-Section

We had a doe that was at day 145 of a pregnancy. Normally does kid between day 149 and 155. She had kidded three times before with no problem. We noticed her water bag had been pushed out but was not broken.
 

• We noticed her water sac was hanging out unbroken. As soon as we see the water sac appear or the water to break, we make a note of the time. This was 11:30 am. It is important that that actual kidding starts within a short time after the water has broken. We don't like to see a doe go more than two hours without kidding after her water has broken. I came out to start our kidding watch.
• At 1:30 pm, the doe had still not started any contractions or labor pushing and that worried us. Sometimes when they don't start real labor after a few hours of when the water broke, it can be a sign  the first baby could to positioned wrong or could be dead. We decided to go inside her and help pull the kids. We got our special birthing kit together, disinfected our hands and started in.
• The first thing I noticed this time that was different from all other times we had done this was I did not feel a head, feet or body after getting in about 6-8 inches. As a felt around, I could feel some wall as I tried to go farther in. Then I found a small opening around 3 inches in diameter. I realized that was the cervix and it had not opened enough for any kid to get through. Every time we had done this before, the cervix had already dialitated and I never noticed it. I gently moved my fingers into the cervix to see if it would easily expand. It did not. Several years ago we had a local vet come out to help a doe having trouble delivering her kids. He had indicated that the best then to do was pull the kids through the cervix to help stretch it out for her next kidding. THAT WAS A MAJOR MISTAKE.... Never do that. It was the most painful thing I had ever watched. Both kids were killed trying to get them out. The doe had trouble walking for months and never bred successfully again. He had ruined the doe and caused her needless pain. We called our vet that is 90 minutes away who know what they are doing. They recommended bringing her in to the office and gave us an immediate work in.
• The vet took the temperature of the doe and she had fever of 104.5. The normal temperature is around 103.5.
• The next thing they did was sonogram the doe to see if there was any kids alive. Then they went inside of her as I had done. He confirmed our diagnoses that the cervix had not dilated enough to deliver the kids naturally. The water had broken and the clock was running on being able to deliver the kids alive. They recommended doing a c-section in order to save the doe and try saving the kids. We agreed and did a c-section.

• The vet did the c-section and delivered three kids. Because the doe had fever, it caused the babies to be much hotter than normal. He basically said they were baking inside her. The doe can breath heavy to help remove some of the heat from her body but the kids inside have no way of removing the heat.
• He had his assistants put the kids in cool water while they were working to get them breathing.
• One of the kids did not survive because of all the fluids that had gotten in the lungs during all of the activities  since the doe tried to start her labor.  Two other kids successfully made it. The doe also made it. This had ended around 5:30 pm. The doe and the kids stayed at the vets office over night and we picked them up the next day.
• The doe and the kids were isolated at our home so she would not have other animals around to potential hurt her after the operation.
• The doe's milk had not come in good therefore we ended up using some colostrum that we had frozen from last year.
• The vet had use give the doe Oxytocin for three days. This was to help clean her out from the afterbirth that could not easily be taken out during the c-section. It also helps bring in her milk.
• He also had us give her Baytril for five days to fight any infection.
• We gave her Probios to keep the rumen working properly since we were giving her antibotics.